Prompting social networking system users to provide additional user profile information

ABSTRACT

A social networking system presents questions to a user on an interface associated with the social networking system to elicit information about the user that is missing from the user&#39;s profile or is otherwise outdated. The questions are selected based on a number of factors, such as the need for or value of the information item, probability of a response, or cost of collecting the information item. In presenting the selected question, the social networking system prompts a user for information about the user in a an interface associated with a page from the social networking system, an application external to the social networking system, or using a push notification or prompt. The questions may be formatted in various ways, such as an explicit question, confirmation, a selection of responses, or social context to encourage the user to respond to the question.

BACKGROUND

This disclosure relates generally to social networking systems, and inparticular to presenting questions to social networking system users toobtain additional user information.

Social networking systems acquire information about users and theirrelationships to provide a more personalized user experience.Information about a user is often self-reported (e.g., information aboutthe user's interests, activities, and the nature of their relationshipswith other users). Additional information about a user and userrelationships with other users may be collected by the social networkingsystem. Examples of additional information collected include the number,frequency, and directionality of interactions between users and types ofinteractions between users.

Information about user characteristics, user relationships with otherusers, and user interests is valuable to users of social networkingservices and to administrators of the social networking system. Socialnetworking system users, such as advertisers, may use information aboutother users to target content, such as product advertisements, tospecific groups of social networking system users. Social networkingsystem administrators may use user information to better select contentfor social networking users, providing a more personalized userexperience. While a social networking system may request or inferinformation about its users, most user information is self-reported bysocial networking system users. This frequently results in incompleteinformation about the users that is insufficient to improve the userexperiences with the social networking system.

SUMMARY

A social networking system presents questions to a user to elicitinformation about a user that is missing from the user's profile or thatis outdated. For example, the social networking system identifiesinformation items in a user profile that are not associated with data(“unknown information items”). Based on a need or value for associatingdata with an unknown information item, the social networking systemselects an unknown information item. The value of associating data withan information item may be based on the revenue or user engagementcreated by using the data to select content for presentation to theuser.

One or more questions associated with the selected unknown informationitem, or with a type associated with the unknown information item, areselected. The questions may be selected based on the likelihood of auser responding to the question. Various questions associated with theunknown information item may be differently formatted or includedifferent content, and the likelihood of a user responding to thequestion may vary depending on the format or content of a question.Hence, accounting for the likelihood of a user responding to a questionallows selection of a question. Based at least in part on the responseprobabilities associated with the questions, one or more questionsassociated with the selected unknown information item are selected.Hence, the selected one or more questions may have formats most likelyto obtain a response from the user. Examples of formats for questionsinclude an explicit question, a confirmation and a selection ofresponses. Additionally, information about other users responding to thequestion, such as users connected to the user, may be included in thequestion to further encourage a response.

The selected one or more questions are presented to the user to elicitdata for association with the unknown information item from the user.Various communication channels may be used to present the selected oneor more questions to a user. For example, a data acquisition interfaceincluding a question is presented in a page maintained by the socialnetworking system. Alternatively, one or more questions may be presentedas stories in a newsfeed presented to a user, as recommendations foractions to be performed by the user, as messages sent to the user, orusing any other suitable communication channel. Received responses to aquestion are stored in the user profile and associated with theinitially selected unknown information item.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a high level block diagram of a process for a socialnetworking system to acquire information items about a user, inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a high level block diagram of a system environment, inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 3 is a high level block diagram of an information retrieval modulefor acquiring information about a user of a social networking system, inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of a process for obtaining an information itemabout a user, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIGS. 5A-5K are examples of a data acquisition interface, in accordancewith some embodiments.

The figures depict various embodiments of the described methods andsystem and are for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the artwill readily recognize from the following discussion that alternativeembodiments of the methods and systems illustrated herein may beemployed without departing from the principles of the methods andsystems described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

A social networking system offers its users the ability to communicateand interact with other social networking system users. Users join thesocial networking system and add connections to other users to whichthey desire to be connected. Social networking system users may providedescriptive information that is stored in user profiles. For example, auser may provide age, gender, geographical location, education history,employment history and the like for storage in a user profile. Theinformation provided by a user may be used by the social networkingsystem to direct information to the user. For example, the socialnetworking system may recommend social groups, events, and potentialconnections to other users to a user. A social networking system mayalso enable users to explicitly express interest in a concept, such ascelebrities, hobbies, sports teams, books, music, and the like. Theseexpressions of interests, and other actions captured by the socialnetworking system may be used in a variety of ways. For example, userinterests, actions, and/or characteristics may be used to targetadvertisements or provide personalized content, such as stories aboutother social networking system users having similar interests, to auser.

Based on information about users, connections between users, and actionsperformed by users, a social networking system may maintain a socialgraph. The social graph includes nodes connected by one or more edges.Nodes include users and other objects of the social networking system,such as web pages embodying concepts and entities. Edges connect thenodes and represent interactions between users and/or objectscorresponding to the nodes. For example, an edge may represent a userexpressing an interest in a news article provided by another user about“America's Cup.” The social graph may record interactions between usersof the social networking system as well as interactions between usersand objects of the social networking system using edges between usersand the objects. Additionally, third-party developers or socialnetworking system administrators may define custom graph object typesand graph action types having attributes customized to the graph objectsor to the graph actions. For example, a graph object for a movie mayhave several defined object properties, such as a title, actors,directors, producers, year, and the like. A graph action type, such as“purchase,” may be used by a third-party developer on a website externalto the social networking system to report custom actions performed byusers of the social networking system. In this way, the social graph maybe “open,” enabling third-party developers to create and use the customgraph objects and actions on external websites.

Third-party developers may enable users of the social networking systemto express interest in web pages hosted on websites external to thesocial networking system. These web pages may be represented as pageobjects in the social networking system by embedding a widget, a socialplug-in, programmable logic, or code snippet into the web pages. Forexample, an iframe is embedded in a web page to communicate informationfrom the web page to the social networking system. Hence, any conceptthat may be embodied in a web page may become a node in the social graphon the social networking system. This allows social networking systemusers to interact with many objects external to the social networkingsystem that are relevant to a keyword or keyword phrase, and theinteractions to be stored in as edges the social graph by the socialnetworking system. Enabling third-party developers to define customobject types and custom action types further described U.S. applicationSer. No. 13/239,340, filed on Sep. 21, 2011, which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

While a social networking system may collect and infer, informationabout its users, certain information about users may be particularlyvaluable for the social networking system to better understand its usersand to provide users with a more personalized experience. Hence, thesocial networking system may determine information to acquire from auser based on one or more goals of the social networking system andprompt the user to provide the determined information. For example, thesocial networking system associates values with different items of userinformation and selects an item of user information based on the values.A question prompting the user for the selected item of user informationmay then be presented to the user, allowing the user to provide theselected item of user information by answering the question.

FIG. 1 is a high level block diagram of one embodiment of a process fora social networking system to acquire information items about a user.The information retrieval module 102 of the social networking system 100accesses information associated with a user and determines missing oroutdated information items from the information associated with theuser. Information items from information associated with the userdescribe characteristics about the user. To determine which informationitems to acquire, the information retrieval module 102 analyzes userprofile information associated with the user by the social networkingsystem 100 and determines an acquisition value for each missing oroutdated information item (also referred to herein as “unknowninformation items”). User profile information includes informationstored as profile objects 104, edge objects 106, and content objects108.

One or more of the information items associated with a user may be usedby the social networking system to achieve various goals. In oneembodiment, the information retrieval module identifies missing oroutdated information items for optimizing a goal of the socialnetworking system 100 and selects questions for presenting to the userto obtain the identified information items. The social networking system100 may choose a question presented to the user based on the value tothe social networking system of a particular information item to beobtained from a response to the question.

A user device 110 comprises one or more computing devices capable ofreceiving input from a user as well as transmitting and receiving datavia a network. The user device 110 can execute an application 112allowing a user of the user device 110 to exchange data with the socialnetworking system 100. For example, the user devices 110 execute abrowser application or a native application to allow user interactionwith the social networking system 100.

The external system 114 includes a webpage 116 with a widget 118comprising instructions for communicating with the social networkingsystem 100 and/or the user device 110. The widget 118 includesinstructions that, when executed, cause a user device 110 to obtaininformation from the social networking system 100, such as a questionfor presentation to a user. Additionally, when the instructionscomprising the widget 118 are executed, information may be communicatedfrom the user device 100 to the social networking system 100, such as aresponse to the question presented to the user.

Hence, a social networking system 100 may obtain missing or updatedinformation items about a user. For example, a social networking system100 may obtain additional information about a user's activities,hobbies, education history, and work history. A social networking system100 may also prompt the user to confirm changes to a user's personallife inferred by the social networking system 100, such as anengagement, a birth of a child, a move to a different location, agraduation from college, a new job, or any other suitable event. Theadditionally obtained information allows the social networking system100 to create a more personalized experience for the user. For example,a social networking system 100 may present statistics about a user'sactivities, select stories for the user's newsfeed better matching theuser's interests and activities, or select advertisements more likely tobe relevant to the user.

System Architecture

FIG. 2 is a high level block diagram of one embodiment of a systemenvironment 200. As shown in FIG. 2, the system environment 200comprises one or more user devices 110, one or more external systems114, the social networking system 100, and a network 202. In alternativeconfigurations, the system environment 200 includes different and/oradditional components. In some embodiments, the social networking system100 is implemented as a single server, while in other embodiments it isimplemented as a distributed system of multiple servers. For purposes ofillustration, the embodiment of the system 100 shown by FIG. 2 includesa single external system 114 and a single user device 110. However, inother embodiments, the system environment 200 may include more userdevices 110 and/or more external systems 114. In certain embodiments,the social networking system 100 is operated by a social networkprovider, while the one or more external systems 114 are separate fromthe social networking system 100 in that they may be operated bydifferent entities. However, in various embodiments, the socialnetworking system 100 and the external systems 114 operate inconjunction to provide social networking services to social networkingsystem users. Hence the social networking system 100 provides aplatform, or backbone, which other systems, such as external systems114, may use to provide social networking services and functionalitiesto users across the Internet.

The network 202 may be any wired or wireless local area network (LAN)and/or wide area network (WAN), such as an intranet, an extranet, or theInternet. The network 202 provides communication between the userdevices 110 and the social networking system 100, and may also providescommunication between one or more external system 114 and the socialnetworking system 100 and/or the user devices 110. In some embodiments,network 202 uses the HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) and theTransmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) to transmitinformation between devices or systems. However, various protocols maybe used by the network 202 in various embodiments.

The user devices 110 comprise one or more computing devices capable ofreceiving user input and processing data, as well as transmitting andreceiving data via the network 202. In one embodiment, the user device110 is a conventional computer system, such as a desktop computer, alaptop computer, or other suitable computing device. In anotherembodiment, the user device 110 is a device having computerfunctionality, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), mobiletelephone, smart-phone, etc. The user device 110 is configured tocommunicate via network 202. The user device 110 can execute anapplication, for example, a browser application, allowing a user of theuser device 110 to interact with the social networking system 100.Alternatively, the user device 110 interacts with the social networkingsystem 100 through an application programming interface (API) running onthe native operating system of the user device 110, such as IOS® orANDROID™.

The external system 114 is separate from the social networking system100 and includes one or more web servers providing one or more webpages, which are communicated to the user device 110 using the network202. For example, the external system 114 is associated with a firstdomain while the social networking system 100 website is associated witha separate social networking domain. Web pages included in the externalsystem 114 comprise markup language documents identifying content andincluding instructions specifying formatting or presentation of theidentified content. In some embodiments, the web pages include a widgetthat comprises instructions for obtaining a prompt for information fromthe social networking system 100 (e.g., for presenting questions to auser using the user device 110) and communicating information obtainedin response to the prompt to the social networking system 100 (e.g.,sending answers to presented questions to the social networking system100). For example, if the user accesses a webpage via the externalsystem 114, the widget provides instructions to a browser application onthe user device 110 rendering the webpage to request a prompt forinformation, such as a question/answer interface, for presentation tothe user. The request may include an identifier for the user.

In the example of FIG. 2, the social networking system 100 includes aweb server 203, a user profile database 206, a content database 208, anedge database 210, an action logger 212, an action log 214, a questiondatabase 216, an information retrieval module 102, and an applicationprogramming interface (AIP) server 218. However, in differentembodiments, the social networking system may 100 may include differentand/or additional components.

The web server 204 links the social networking system 100 via thenetwork 202 to one or more user devices 110. The web server 204 servesweb pages, as well as other web-related content, such as JAVA®, FLASH®,XML, and so forth. Further, the web server 204 receives and routesmessages between the social networking system 100 and the user devices110. Examples of messages received and routed by the web server 204include instant messages, queued messages (e.g., email), text and SMS(short message service) messages, or messages sent using any othersuitable messaging technique. A user may send a request to the webserver 204 to upload information, for example, images or videos that arestored in the content database 208. Additionally, the web server 204 mayprovide application programming interface (API) functionality to senddata directly to native user device operating systems of user devices110, such as IOS®, ANDROID™, WEBOS®, and BlackBerry OS.

The user profile database 206 stores user profiles 104 associated witheach user of the social networking system 100. A user profile 104includes declarative information about a user, inferred or implicitinformation about a user from the user's actions on the socialnetworking system 100 and outside of the social networking system 100,information about the user's activities and interests. Examples ofinformation about a user stored in a user profile 104 includebiographic, demographic, and other types of descriptive information,such as work experience, educational history, gender, hobbies orpreferences, location, and the like. In one embodiment, a user profile104 includes various data fields for storing information items about auser. Each data field may store a different type of information about auser. Examples of information stored by the data fields include phonenumbers, instant message screen names, addresses, websites, currentcity, hometown, gender, birthday, names of family members, languagesspoken, a description, education history, work history, religiousaffiliations, political views, favorite quotes, favorite sports,favorite foods, favorite books, favorites movies, interests, activities,names of pets, information about friends, and the like.

A user profile 104 of a user may also include the user's affinity scoresfor objects in the social networking system 100. An affinity scoremeasures or indicates a user's affinity for an object in the socialnetworking system 100. In one embodiment, affinity scores of users foran object may be determined based on the user's interactions with thespecified object over time. In particular, affinity scores of a user foran object may be determined based on edges 106 including informationdescribing interactions between the user and object. Example embodimentsof computing affinity scores are described in U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/978,265, filed on Dec. 23, 2010, which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety. The user profile database 206may also store other information provided by the user, for example,images or videos. In certain embodiments, images of users may be taggedwith identification information of users of the social networking system100 displayed in an image. The user profile database 206 also maintainsreferences to the actions stored in an action log 214 and performed onobjects in the content database 208, and may include references to theedge database 210 to identify connections between users.

The content database 208 stores content objects 108, which representcontent maintained by the social networking system 100. Examples ofcontent objects 108 include a page, content posted to a page, a statusupdate, a photo, a video, a link, a gaming application achievement, acheck-in event at a local business, and so on. Content objects 108include objects created by users of the social networking system 100.Examples of content objects 108 created by a user include statusupdates, photographs, location information, events, pages, applicationsinstalled on the social networking system 100, media content, or othercontent. In some embodiments, the content objects 108 are received fromthird-party applications, which may be separate from the socialnetworking system 100.

The action logger 212 receives communications describing user actions onand/or off the social networking system 100. The action logger 212populates the action log 214 with information about user actions. In oneembodiment, one or more privacy settings in a user profile 104 allow auser to limit the information about the user's actions stored in theaction log 214. Examples of actions performed by a user include: addinga connection to another user, sending a message to another user,uploading an image, reading a message from another user, viewing contentassociated with another user, attending an event, or other actions. Inaddition, a number of actions described in connection with other objectsare directed at particular users, so these actions are associated withthose users as well.

The action log 214 may track users' actions on the social networkingsystem 100 as well as on external websites that communicate informationback to the social networking system 100. As mentioned above, usersinteract with various objects on the social networking system 100.Examples of interactions with objects include commenting on posts,sharing links, and checking-in to physical locations via a mobiledevice. The action log 214 may also include information describing useractions on external websites. For example, an e-commerce website thatprimarily sells luxury shoes at bargain prices may recognize a user of asocial networking system 100 through social plug-ins enabling thee-commerce website to identify the social networking system user.Because social networking system users are uniquely identifiable,external systems 114, such as this luxury shoe reseller, may use theinformation about these users as they visit their websites. The actionlog 214 records data about these users, including viewing histories,advertisements that were clicked on, purchasing activity, and buyingpatterns.

The edge database 210 stores edges 106, which describe connectionsbetween users and other users or between users and content objects inthe social networking system 100. Edges 106 connect objects in thesocial graph and include information about interactions with objectsand/or users associated with the edges. For example, an edge 106 maydescribe a user accessing a link, a user sharing photos with other usersof the social networking system 100, a user posting a status updatemessage on the social networking system 100, or other actions performedinternal and external to the social networking system 100.

Some edges 106 may be defined by users, allowing users to specify theirrelationships with other users or content objects 108. For example,users may generate edges with other users that parallel the users'real-life relationships, such as friends, co-workers, partners, and soforth. Other edges 106 are generated when users interact with contentobjects 108 in the social networking system 100. Examples ofinteractions with content objects 108 include expressing interest in apage on the social networking system 100 (“liking” the page), sharing alink with other users of the social networking system 100, andcommenting on posts made by other users of the social networking system100. The edge database 210 includes information about edges 106 such asaffinity scores for objects, interests, and other users. Affinity scoresmay be computed by the social networking system 100 over time toapproximate a user's affinity for an object, interest, and other usersin the social networking system 100 based on the actions performed bythe user. Multiple interactions between a user and a specific object maybe stored as one edge 106 in the edge database 210 or may be stored asmultiple edges 106. For example, a user playing songs from Norah Jones'album, “Little Broken Hearts,” may be associated with multiple edges 106for each of the songs and associated with an edge 106 for Norah Jones.Edges 106 may include information about user interactions outside of thesocial networking system 100. For example, interaction information maybe collected from third-party systems (e.g., sites and applications)using social plug-ins allowing interaction with social networking systemcontent.

The question database 216 stores prompts for presentation to a socialnetworking system user to obtain various information items about theuser. For example, a prompt presents a question to a user to elicit aresponse that provides the social networking system 100 with aparticular information item about the user. In one embodiment, promptsare questions stored in the question database 216 using one or moretemplates including phrases, words, characters, images, symbols, orother information structured to elicit a particular information item ora particular type of information item about a user when presented. Forexample, a question may be presented as a sentence phrased as aquestion, an incomplete statement, a selection of multiple choiceanswers, or any other suitable format for eliciting a response from auser. In one embodiment, the question database 216 stores associationsbetween prompts and an information item or a type of information item,allowing retrieval of questions based on a type of information item.

The application programming interface (API) server 218 allows one ormore user devices 110 to access information from or send information tothe social networking system 100 using one or more APIs. In oneembodiment, a user device 110 sends an API request to the socialnetworking system 100 via the network 202 and the API server 218processes the received API request using an API associated with the APIrequest. A response to the API request is communicated to the userdevice 110 by the API server 218 via the network 202. For example,responsive to an API request, the API server 218 collects dataassociated with a user, such as users connected to the user, andcommunicates the collected data to the user device 110. In anotherembodiment, an external system 114 hosting web pages communicates withthe social networking system 100 via APIs. In some embodiments, the APIserver 218 includes functions allowing a third party application toprovide user data for incorporation into questions, or other prompts,presented to a user to elicit information about an unknown informationitem about a user.

Determining which User Information to Acquire

FIG. 3 is block diagram of one embodiment of the information retrievalmodule 102, which identifies unknown information about a user andidentifies a prompt from the question database 216 to obtain the unknowninformation item. Hence, the information retrieval module 102 determineswhat information to request from a user and a format for requesting theinformation from the user. In the embodiment shown by FIG. 3, theinformation retrieval module 102 includes a scoring module 120, aquestion selection module 122, and a response module 124.

Types of Information Items

As described above, a user profile 104 includes declarative informationprovided to the social networking system 100 by the user and may alsoinclude information about the user inferred about the user by the socialnetworking system 100. For example, the social networking system 100 mayinfer a user's interests in a music artist based on the user'sactivities internal to and external to the social networking system 100,such as playing songs by the artist or discussing the artist. A userprofile 104 may also include information about the user's activities onthe social networking system 100 and/or on external systems 114. Forexample, information describing actions of the user on a third partywebsite may be sent to the social networking system 100 and stored inthe edge database 210 or in the action log 214. The user profile 104 mayretrieve the information describing the actions. Additionally, a userprofile 104 may identify a user's connections to other users from theedge store 214.

Hence, a user profile 104 includes multiple information items, eachproviding different information about a user. For example, differentdeclarative information in a user profile 104 comprises differentinformation items. Connections to other users and descriptions ofactions may be other information items associated with a user profile104. A type may be associated with an information item to describe theinformation item. Examples of types may include actions, connections,interests, demographic information, or other suitable descriptions. Insome embodiments, a timestamp is associated with an information itemindicating when the information item was obtained or created. In someembodiments, an information item is associated with a geographiclocation identifying where the information was acquired or locations ofone or more users associated with the information item.

Determining Value of Acquiring an Information Item

The social networking system 100 associates a value with variousinformation items in the user profile 104. The values of informationitems are used by the scoring module 120 to identify an unknowninformation item to request from a user. In one embodiment, the valueassociated with an information item indicates the value to the socialnetworking system 100 of obtaining the information item. The scoringmodule 122 determines a value for the information items in a userprofile 104 and uses the values to select one or more information itemsfor which data is not stored (“unknown information items”). In oneembodiment, a value of an information item measures the socialnetworking system's 100 need for a type of information associated withthe information item; the need may be based in part on the ability ofthe social networking system 100 to use the type of information forproviding content to a user. The scoring module 122 identifies userprofile information for a user to identify unknown information items andselects an unknown information item based on the values associated withthe unknown information item; the scoring module 122 may select theunknown information item having the highest value. For example, if auser profile 104 does not include information identifying a user's“current city,” the scoring module 122 may associate a relatively largevalue for the “current city” information item, as it may be used forselecting advertisements or other content for presentation to the user.Hence, the scoring module 122 selects the information item “currentcity” to obtain from the user.

In some embodiments, in addition to identifying information items in auser profile 104 not associated with data, the scoring module 122identifies information items associated with data that has not beenupdated for a threshold amount of time or that was not obtained within athreshold amount of time from a current time. One or more informationitems may be associated with a time limit specifying a length of timefor updating the data associated with the information item. Differenttypes of information items may be associated with different time limits.For example, a an information item including a user's hobbies may have ashorter time limit than an information item including the user'shometown as the user is more likely to change hobbies than hometown. Insome embodiments, the social networking system 100 assigns a recencyscore to an information item that may decay over time by a decay rate;the decay rate for an information item may depend on the type ofinformation item.

Data Acquisition Value of an Information Item

The scoring module 122 determines a data acquisition value for eachinformation item associated with a user's profile. A data acquisitionvalue measures a need of the social networking system 100 for the typeof information associated with an information item. For example, thedata acquisition value represents the ability of the social networkingsystem 100 to select content for a user based on the type ofinformation; as another example, the data acquisition value may be basedon an amount of user profile information for the user, and may bedetermined based on a difference between a threshold amount ofinformation and a stored amount of user profile information. In someembodiments, the data acquisition value for an information item isdetermined based on the value of the information to the socialnetworking system 100 and the probability of getting a response from theuser. For example, the data acquisition value for an information itemmay be the product of the value of the information and the probabilityof getting a response from the user to a question or prompt.

In some embodiments, the scoring module 120 stores value entriesidentifying an information item, and a data acquisition value for theinformation item. Alternatively, a value entry identifies an informationitem, the value of the information item, and a response probability of aquestion or prompt associated with a type of information item. Variousvalue entries including response probabilities for different formats ofa prompt or question. For example, a value entry associated with aprompt for identifying an information item whether the user owns a dogidentifies the type of information item, the question or the questionformat, a value of 2 and a response probability of 50%; may be [2, 50%];a value entry for a question asking for an information item identifyinga dog's name after presentation of the prompt of whether the user owns adog includes a value of 50 and a response probability of 90%.

Probability of Acquiring an Information Item

In some embodiments, the data acquisition value for an information itemis based in part on the probability of the user responding to a promptto provide data associated with the information item. The scoring module122 may store a table associating response probabilities for eachinformation item or may store single response probability associatedwith a user. In one embodiment, the scoring module 122 uses a user'saffinity for one or more attributes of a question or prompt to determinethe probability of the user responding to the question or prompt.Examples of attributes of a question used to calculate a responseprobability include: subject matter of the question, entity presentingthe question, format in which the question is presented, and a time whenthe question is presented. In some embodiments, a response probabilityof a user for an information item is based on the user's historicalresponse rate to questions or prompts. The historical response rate maybe a general response rate or specific to questions related to specifictypes of information items, specific to a format in which questions werepresented, or times when questions were presented. For example, a usermay be more likely to provide information to questions about intereststhan to questions about work history. In another example, a user may bemore likely to respond to a prompt presented from another user connectedto the user than to a prompt presented by the social networking system100.

A user's response probability for a question associated with aninformation item or with a type of information item may be based atleast in part on historical response rates to prompts, or questions, byadditional users connected to the user. In some embodiments, a user'sresponse probability for a question or prompt associated with aninformation item is based at least in part on a questionpreviously-presented to the user, a response from the user to thepreviously-presented question, or a combination of thereof. For example,the probability of a user responding to a question to obtain name of theuser's dog may be higher if the user is first presented with a questionto obtain information about whether the user owns a dog. The format inwhich a prompt or question is presented may affect a user's responseprobability to a question. For example, a user may be more likely torespond by completing a series of phrases rather than responding to asentence; as an example a user may have a higher response probability tothe phrase my “My favorite actor is” after completing the phrase “Myfavorite movie is.”

One or more machine learning processes may be used to determine responseprobabilities. A machine learning process observes patterns in data topredict user behavior (e.g., whether a user will respond to a questionbased on features of the question) and adjusts its behavior in order toimprove its performance. Initially, a machine learning process infers afunction from training data and uses the inferred function to predict anoutput for an input object. The training data includes a set of inputobjects, such as questions or prompts previously presented to a user,and corresponding outputs. The input objects are labeled with featuresindicating whether the user responded to the question or prompt.Examples of features indicating whether the user responded to thequestion include attributes of a presented question, such as questiontype, question subject matter, entity that presented the question,format in which the question was presented, and time when the questionwas presented. Additional examples of features include attributes of theuser to which the question was presented, such as biographicinformation, geographic information, social information, or other userprofile information. Features may be extracted from stored user profileinformation, received a third-party or developer, or by a combinationthereof. The outputs corresponding to input objects in the training dataindicate whether the user responded to a question or prompt. In oneexample, an output is a binary value indicating whether or not aquestion received a response from a user. As another example, the outputindicates a degree of similarity between responses received based onpresentation of different questions or prompts.

Selecting a Question to Acquire an Information Item

The selection module 120 determines a prompt or question, a format forthe prompt or question, and a time to present the prompt or question toa user to obtain data associated with an information item, such as anunknown information item. To select a question or prompt forpresentation to a user, the selection module 120 retrieves one or morevalue entries for an information item, selects one or more questionsbased on the value entries, and presents the selected one or morequestions to a user.

In some embodiments, the scoring module 122 sends the selection module120 a specified number of value entries having the highest dataacquisition values or having data acquisition values equaling orexceeding a threshold value. The selection module 120 selects one ormore questions from the question database 216 based on the receivedvalue entries for the questions. In one embodiment, the selection module120 identifies a value entry having the highest response probability andselects one or more questions from the question database 216 associatedwith a type matching the type of information item included in theselected value entry. For example, the selection module 120 selects oneor more questions having the highest response probabilities forobtaining information about the user's favorite band when theinformation item associated with a favorite band has the highest dataacquisition value. As discussed above, questions stored in the questiondatabase 216 are associated with information items or types ofinformation items.

The selection module 120 may present the selected questions in anysuitable manner. For example, a question is presented via a dataacquisition interface of a social networking system page, via anapplication external to the social networking system 100, via a pushnotification, or via any suitable communication channel. In one example,the one or more questions are presented to a user as a story in a user'snewsfeed. Questions or prompts may be presented in response to a userperforming one or more actions, such as commenting on a story, sharing astory, dismissing a story, or expressing a preference of a story. Forexample, the selection module 120 may present a question or prompt to auser to obtain an unknown information item related to a story for whichthe user expresses a preference. In another example, the selectionmodule 120 may adds a link to a story in a newsfeed to obtain aninformation item from a user by requesting confirmation of aninformation item associated with another user. For example, theselection module 120 includes a “Me too” link in a newsfeed storyassociated with a user, allowing a user viewing the story to access thelink to include content associated with the story in the user profile ofthe user viewing the story (e.g., the link allows a user to store aninformation item indicating the user attended an event identified by thestory).

In some embodiments, the selection module 120 presents a selectedquestion or prompt using an interface (e.g., a data acquisitioninterface) presented when the user views a page from the socialnetworking system 100, views a page from an external system 114, or usesan application external to the social networking system 100.Alternatively, a selected question or prompt is presented using a pushnotification channel, a message transmitted to a user, or is presentedusing any suitable communication channel. A selected question or promptmay be presented along with various types of content, such asadvertisements, applications, photographs, videos, status messages,events, pages, recommendations to perform actions, or any other contentprovided by or accessible via the social networking system 100. Hence,questions or prompts may be presented to a user using a variety ofcommunication channels. Examples of communication channels include anewsfeed, a posting on a page, an email, a comment on a content item, amobile application, a third-party application, a text message, aniframe, a social plug-in, a notification, an advertising communicationchannel, a recommendation to perform an action, a discussion board, orany other communication channel associated with the social networkingsystem 100. Communication channels are discussed further in U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/253,149, filed on Oct. 16, 2008, which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

In some embodiments, the selection module 120 presents a selectedquestion or prompt in response to a user performing an action internalto or external to the social networking system 100. Examples of actionsthat may cause presentation of a prompt or question to a user include:checking-in to a restaurant, posting a status message updated, sending amessage to another user, playing a song, viewing video, playing a game,viewing a profile, using an application, or performing any othersuitable action. For example, when the user checks into a restaurant,the selection module 120 may present the user with question about thefood at the restaurant typically ordered by the user.

A question or prompt presented by the selection module 120 may beformatted in a variety of ways. The formatting of a prompt may bedetermined based at least in part on the value to the social networkingsystem 100 of obtaining data for the information item associated withthe prompt. In some embodiments, the selection module 120 presents anexplicit question associated with an information item when the userviews a page via the social networking system 100. For example, theexplicit question “What is your favorite band?” is presented to obtaindata for an information item identifying a user's favorite band. Asanother example, a prompt may be presented along with potential answers,allowing a user to select an answer from the potential answers. Promptspresented to a user may include information associated with the user orwith other users connected to the user. For example, the selectionmodule 120 may present a user with question associated with aninformation item that includes information about users connected to theuser, such as “Your friend likes X. Do you?” or “Jim's dog's name isSpike. What's your dog's name?”

In one embodiment, the selection module 120 presents a question to auser to obtain an information item for an additional user, such as auser connected to the user. For example, a prompt presented to a userallows the user to ask another user connected to the user forinformation. For example, Bob and Alice are users connected to eachother, so the selection module 120 presents Bob with a promptindicating: “Click here to ask Alice for her favorite band.” Accessingthe prompt causes the selection module 120 to present a question toAlice to identify a favorite band; the question may identify Bob toincrease the likelihood that Alice provides an answer to the question.As another example, a question presented to a user includes a link orother interface element to communicate the question to other usersconnected to the user. If a user communicates a question to other users,the selection module 120 may identify the user communicating thequestion to the other users.

In some embodiments, the selection module 120 formats a prompt as acomparison between or a selection among a set of responses. The promptmay include information identifying responses selected by other usersconnected to the user viewing the prompt. For example, a question “Whichis better? A or B?” may be presented to a user along with an indicationof users, or a number of users, connected to the user that selected Aand that selected B. The prompt may identify users selecting aparticular response. Alternatively, after a user selects a response, theselection module 120 modifies the prompt to identify other usersconnected to the user or to identify a number of users connected to theuser selecting the same response as the user.

The selection module 120 may select the set of responses based on one ormore factors, including similarity of responses, probability the userselects a response, and affinity of the user for a response. In oneembodiment, the selection module 120 selects responses for which theuser has at least a threshold probability of selection or for which theuser has at least a threshold affinity. The threshold probability ofselection or the threshold affinity may be specified or may bedynamically calculated and adjusted based on response information. Inone embodiment, the selection module 120 may include one or moreresponses having a probability of selection or affinity below athreshold and one or more responses having a probability of selection oran affinity above the threshold in the set of responses. Alternatively,the set of responses includes responses having probabilities ofselection or affinities all below a threshold or all above thethreshold.

The response module 124 receives and stores responses to a prompt orquestion received from a user. When a user provides information inresponse to a presented prompt or question, the response module 124identifies the user profile associated with the user from the userprofile database 205 and identifies the information item associated withthe presented prompt or question. The response module 124 associates thereceived information with the information item and stores the receivedinformation in the user profile. In some embodiments, the responsemodule 124 receives data from a third party application in response to aquestion or prompt presented to a user by the third party application tothe user.

Obtaining Information about a Social Networking System User

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of one embodiment of a process 400 for obtainingan information item about a user. The process 400 is performed at aserver system (e.g., the social networking system 100) having one ormore processors and non-transitory memory. The non-transitory memorystores one or more instructions that, when executed by one or moreprocessors, perform the actions described below.

The social networking system 100 maintains 402 a user profile for auser. The user profile may be stored in a user profile database 205,further described above in conjunction with FIG. 1. The user profileincludes data associated with various information items, as describedabove. One or more information items in the user profile may not beassociated with data or may be associated with data was obtained morethan a threshold time from a current time (“unknown information items”).The social networking system 100 may identify the unknown informationitems in the user profile.

As described above in conjunction with FIG. 3, the social networkingsystem 100 determines 404 an acquisition value associated with variousinformation items in the user profile. The acquisition value of aninformation item is based on the value to the social networking system100 of storing data associated with the information item. In someembodiments, the value of the information to the social networkingsystem 100 is determined based on projected revenue from using theinformation item. The social networking system 100 may generate revenuefrom the information item by using the information item in a sponsoredstory or using the information item to determine which advertisements todisplay to the user, and the expected revenue from advertisements orsponsored stories may influence the value of an information item. Dataassociated with an information item may be used to create personalizedcontent for the user or to select content in which a user likely to havean interest. Thus, in some embodiments, the value of an information itemis determined based on a projected increase in user engagement with thesocial networking system 100 by using data associated with theinformation item to select content. The cost of the displaced contentmay be taken into account with the value of the information item. Whenthe displaced content is an advertisement, the cost may correspond tothe revenue lost from not displaying the advertisement. When thedisplaced content is social content, the cost of the displaced contentmay corresponds to projected loss in user engagement.

The data acquisition value for an information item may be determined 404is based on the value of data associated with the information item tothe social networking system 100 and the probability of the userresponding to a question or prompt associated with the information itemor with a type associated with the information item (a “responseprobability”). The response probability may be determined based on auser's affinity for one or more attributes of a question, includingsubject matter of the question, entity or user associated with thequestion, formatting of the question, and time when the question ispresented. In other embodiments, the response probability may be basedon a user's historical responses to questions, responses to questions byother users connected to the user, a question previously-presented tothe user, a response from the user to a previously-presented question,or a combination of thereof. In one embodiment, the social networkingsystem 100 determines 404 a data acquisition value for unknowninformation items in the user profile; alternatively, the socialnetworking system 100 determines a data acquisition value for eachinformation item in the user profile.

Based on the data acquisition values associated with information items,an unknown information item is selected 406. In some embodiments, a setof candidate unknown information items are selected from the userprofile, and an unknown information item is selected 406 from thecandidate unknown information item based on the data acquisition values.For example, the unknown information item associated with the largestdata acquisition value.

A question associated with the selected unknown information item orassociated with a type associated with the unknown information item isselected 406. In one embodiment, value entries from the scoring module120 associated with the unknown information item, or with a typeassociated with the unknown information item, and with one or morequestions are retrieved. A value entry identifies a question associatedwith an information item, with a type of information item and a responseprobability. Different questions associated with the information itemmay have different response probabilities because of different formatsfor the questions or different content for the question. Value entrieshaving the highest response probabilities may be retrieved or valueentries having response probabilities equaling or exceeding a thresholdare retrieved. Based on the response probabilities, one or morequestions or prompts are selected 408. For example, the socialnetworking system 100 selects 406 the value entry having a maximumresponse probability. In another example, questions or prompts having atleast a threshold response probability are selected 408.

The social networking system 100 presents 410 one or more selectedquestions or prompts to a user. For example, the selected questions orprompts are presented 410 in a data acquisition interface, as describedabove in conjunction with FIG. 3. However the questions or prompts maybe presented 410 using any suitable communication channel. Examples ofcommunication channels include a newsfeed, a posting on a page, anemail, a comment on a content item, a mobile application, a third-partyapplication, a text message, an iframe, a social plug-in, anotification, an advertising communication channel, a discussion board,or any other communication channel associated with the social networkingsystem 100. Data received from users responding to the presented 410questions or prompts is associated with the selected unknown informationitem and stored in the user profile.

Data Acquisition Interface Example

FIGS. 5A-5K illustrate examples of a data acquisition interface, inaccordance with some embodiments. In the example of FIG. 5A, the dataacquisition interface 502 includes a question 504 associated with aninformation item, “high school,” and input fields associated with thename and city of the high school for responding to the question. Theacquisition interface 502 also includes an indication 506 of other usersthat have found friends from high school to encourage response to thequestion. FIGS. 5B and 5K provide examples of various data acquisitioninterfaces 502 a-m including differently formatted questions associatedwith various information items, as further described above inconjunction with FIG. 3.

Summary

The foregoing description of the embodiments of the invention has beenpresented for the purpose of illustration; it is not intended to beexhaustive or to limit the systems and methods to the precise formsdisclosed. Persons skilled in the relevant art can appreciate that manymodifications and variations are possible in light of the abovedisclosure.

Some portions of this description describe the embodiments of thesystems and methods in terms of algorithms and symbolic representationsof operations on information. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are commonly used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to convey the substance of their work effectively toothers skilled in the art. These operations, while describedfunctionally, computationally, or logically, are understood to beimplemented by computer programs or equivalent electrical circuits,microcode, or the like. Furthermore, it has also proven convenient attimes, to refer to these arrangements of operations as modules, withoutloss of generality. The described operations and their associatedmodules may be embodied in software, firmware, hardware, or anycombinations thereof.

Any of the steps, operations, or processes described herein may beperformed or implemented with one or more hardware or software modules,alone or in combination with other devices. In one embodiment, asoftware module is implemented with a computer program productcomprising a computer-readable medium containing computer program code,which can be executed by a computer processor for performing any or allof the steps, operations, or processes described.

Embodiments of the systems and methods may also relate to an apparatusfor performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the required purposes, and/or it may comprise ageneral-purpose computing device selectively activated or reconfiguredby a computer program stored in the computer. Such a computer programmay be stored in a non-transitory, tangible computer readable storagemedium, or any type of media suitable for storing electronicinstructions, which may be coupled to a computer system bus.Furthermore, any computing systems referred to in the specification mayinclude a single processor or may be architectures employing multipleprocessor designs for increased computing capability.

Embodiments of the systems and methods may also relate to a product thatis produced by a computing process described herein. Such a product maycomprise information resulting from a computing process, where theinformation is stored on a non-transitory, tangible computer readablestorage medium and may include any embodiment of a computer programproduct or other data combination described herein.

Finally, the language used in the specification has been principallyselected for readability and instructional purposes, and it may not havebeen selected to delineate or circumscribe the inventive subject matter.It is therefore intended that the scope of the systems and methods belimited not by this detailed description, but rather by any claims thatissue on an application based hereon. Accordingly, the disclosure of theembodiments of the systems and methods are intended to be illustrative,but not limiting, of the scope of the invention, which is set forth inthe following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: presenting a plurality ofquestions requesting information items associated with data describingcharacteristics of a user of a social networking system; logging, in adatabase, a plurality of responses from the user to the plurality ofquestions; maintaining a profile for the user, the profile including oneor more information items associated with data describingcharacteristics of the user and a set of unknown information items notassociated with data; obtaining a plurality of questions associated withone or more information items from the set of unknown information items;determining, for each of the plurality of questions associated with theone or more information items from the set of unknown information items,a response probability based at least in part on one or a combination ofquestions previously presented to the user and the logged plurality ofresponses from the user, the response probability indicating alikelihood of receiving a response to a question when presented;determining a data acquisition value for each of a plurality of theunknown information items in the set of unknown information items, thedata acquisition value of an unknown information item based at least inpart on a value to the social networking system of associating data withthe unknown information item and the determined response probability;selecting an unknown information item from the set of unknowninformation items based at least in part on the data acquisition values;and selecting a question associated with the selected unknowninformation item for presentation to the user based at least in part onthe response probabilities of one or more questions associated with theselected unknown information item.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein theprobability of receiving data associated with the unknown informationitem is based at least in part on a historical response rate of the userto requests for information presented by the social networking system.3. The method of claim 1, wherein the probability of receiving dataassociated with the unknown information item is based at least in parton a historical response rate to requests for information by additionalusers connected to the user.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereindetermining probabilities of receiving data associated with each unknowninformation item comprises: retrieving features associated with users ofthe social networking system from which the social networking systemreceived data associated with the unknown information item afterrequesting; determining features of the users of the social networkingsystem from which the social networking system received data associatedwith the unknown information item after requesting; determining featuresof the user; and determining the probability of receiving dataassociated with the unknown information item based on a comparison ofthe features of the user and the features of the users of the socialnetworking system from which the social networking system received dataassociated with the unknown information item after requesting receiving.5. The method of claim 1, wherein probability of receiving dataassociated with the unknown information item is based at least in parton received response from the user to a previously presented question.6. The method of claim 1, wherein the value to the social networkingsystem of associating data with the unknown information item is based atleast in part on projected revenue generated from selecting contentusing the data associated with the unknown information item.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the value to the social networking system ofassociating data with the unknown information item is based at least inpart on user engagement with the social networking system based oncontent selected using the data associated with the unknown informationitem.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving a responseto the selected question from the user; and selecting an additionalquestion based at least in part on the received response.
 9. The methodof claim 1, further comprising: receiving a response to the selectedquestion from the user; and associating the response with the unknowninformation item in the user profile.
 10. The method of claim 1, whereinobtaining a plurality of questions associated with one or moreinformation items comprises retrieving a stored question.
 11. The methodof claim 1, wherein obtaining a plurality of questions associated withone or more information items comprises generating a question.
 12. Amethod comprising: presenting a plurality of prompts requestinginformation items associated with data describing characteristics of auser of a social networking system; logging, in a database, a pluralityof responses from the user to the plurality of prompts; maintaining aprofile for the user, the profile including one or more informationitems associated with data describing characteristics of the user and aset of unknown information items not associated with data; obtaining aplurality of prompts associated with one or more information items fromthe set of unknown information items; determining, for each of theplurality of prompts associated with the one or more information itemsfrom the set of unknown information items, a response probability basedat least in part on one or a combination of prompts previously presentedto the user and the logged plurality of responses from the user, theresponse probability indicating a likelihood of receiving a response toa prompt when presented; determining a data acquisition value for eachof a plurality of the unknown information items in the set of unknowninformation items, the data acquisition value of an unknown informationitem based at least in part on a value to the social networking systemof associating data with the unknown information item and the determinedresponse probability; selecting an unknown information item from the setof unknown information items based at least in part on the dataacquisition values; and selecting a prompt associated with the selectedunknown information item for presentation to the user based at least inpart on the response probabilities of one or more prompts associatedwith the selected unknown information item.
 13. The method of claim 12,wherein the probability of receiving data associated with the unknowninformation item is based at least in part on a historical response rateof the user to requests for information presented by the socialnetworking system.
 14. The method of claim 12, wherein the probabilityof receiving data associated with the unknown information item is basedat least in part on a historical response rate to requests forinformation by additional users connected to the user.
 15. The method ofclaim 12, wherein the probability of receiving data associated with theunknown information item is based at least in part on a response to apreviously presented prompt received from the user.
 16. The method ofclaim 12, wherein selecting the unknown information item from the set ofunknown information items based at least in part on the data acquisitionvalues comprises: selecting an unknown information having a highest dataacquisition value.
 17. The method of claim 12, wherein the value to thesocial networking system of associating data with the unknowninformation item is based at least in part on projected revenuegenerated from selecting content using the data associated with theunknown information item.
 18. The method of claim 12, wherein the valueto the social networking system of associating data with the unknowninformation item is based at least in part on user engagement with thesocial networking system based on content selected using the dataassociated with the unknown information item.
 19. The method of claim12, further comprising: receiving a response to the selected prompt fromthe user; and selecting an additional question based at least in part onthe received response.
 20. The method of claim 12, wherein the selectedprompt comprises a question.
 21. The method of claim 12, whereinobtaining a plurality of prompts associated with one or more informationitems comprises retrieving a stored question.
 22. The method of claim12, wherein obtaining a plurality of prompts associated with one or moreinformation items comprises generating a question.